A new ser­vice imple­ment­ed by Near Real and Med­ical Cen­ter Medipulssi makes it eas­i­er to assess fit­ness to dri­ve

The dig­i­tal­iza­tion of soci­ety and an upcom­ing law reform relat­ed to doctor’s med­ical state­ments for a dri­ving licence have accel­er­at­ed the devel­op­ment of the new ajokorttilausunto.fi ser­vice. At the same time, a more com­pre­hen­sive offer­ing of dig­i­tal health ser­vices has been cre­at­ed to sup­port cit­i­zens’ health aware­ness.

The offer­ing of dig­i­tal health ser­vices was pre­pared dur­ing the sum­mer in close col­lab­o­ra­tion between com­pa­nies.  Accord­ing to Mah­ba Mohamed, CEO of Med­ical Cen­ter Medipulssi, who over­sees the cur­rent Ajokorttilausunto.fi ser­vice, the impulse to devel­op a video doctor’s appoint­ment came from the cus­tomers and their needs. Many peo­ple who need­ed a med­ical state­ment assess­ing their fit­ness to dri­ve ran into a sit­u­a­tion where they could not make a doctor’s appoint­ment quick­ly enough using pub­lic health­care. A suit­able part­ner for devel­op­ing the new ser­vice was found among health tech­nol­o­gy com­pa­nies in Oulu.

‘Social and health­care des­per­ate­ly need new ways to address the issue of an aging pop­u­la­tion.  Med­ical Cen­ter Medipulssi chal­lenges old oper­at­ing mod­els with us,’ says Mari Kärkkäi­nen, COO of Near Real.

The Ajokorttilausunto.fi ser­vice offers an oppor­tu­ni­ty to receive a doctor’s med­ical state­ment assess­ing fit­ness to dri­ve quick­ly and at a low price. The assess­ment is made direct­ly from home via remote appoint­ment. Before the appoint­ment, the only thing to do is have your eye­sight test­ed by an opti­cian. Oth­er things can be exam­ined with the use of a video con­nec­tion.

‘When, depend­ing on the type of dri­ving license, the 50 or 70-year age lim­it approach­es, many dri­vers need to turn to pri­vate med­ical cen­ters to apply for a med­ical state­ment assess­ing their dri­ving abil­i­ty. The prices of such ser­vices can be up to 200 euros,’ says Mohamed.

Near Real and Med­ical Cen­ter Medipulssi joint­ly cre­ate ser­vices that improve patient flow in health­care.

The ser­vice launched in the sum­mer will also sup­port the law reform planned for the begin­ning of next year. Accord­ing to the reform, med­ical state­ments required for a dri­ving licence will no longer be issued in pub­lic health­care. The online doctor’s appoint­ment that costs only 70 euros com­petes with the prices of pri­vate health­care ser­vices for the ben­e­fit of cit­i­zens.

Mari Kärkkäi­nen and her team are sat­is­fied with the coop­er­a­tion:

‘The project has been reward­ing for both sides and has also giv­en us the oppor­tu­ni­ty to cre­ate new tech­no­log­i­cal solu­tions to ease short­ages of resources in health­care,’ she adds.

In the ajokorttilausunto.fi ser­vice, the cus­tomer grants the doc­tor access to Kan­ta Ser­vices for the social wel­fare and health­care sec­tor. In addi­tion, the cus­tomer fills in a pre-infor­ma­tion form with the infor­ma­tion describ­ing his or her health con­di­tions. 

It is easy for a doc­tor to pick up any health devi­a­tions from the form and clar­i­fy them dur­ing the remote recep­tion, mak­ing assess­ing fit­ness to dri­ve eas­i­er and faster. For exam­ple, mem­o­ry prob­lems, func­tion­al lim­i­ta­tions, and many dis­eases can affect dri­ving abil­i­ty.

‘If the symp­toms require fur­ther exam­i­na­tions or a mem­o­ry nurse or a doc­tor has doubts about the patient’s fit­ness to dri­ve, the remote appoint­ment turns into a con­sul­ta­tion vis­it, and the med­ical state­ment for a dri­ving licence will not be issued. The cus­tomers under police sur­veil­lance for the use of intox­i­cants can­not be served through the ajokorttilausunto.fi ser­vice either,’ says Mohamed.

Con­tact per­sons

Mari Kärkkäi­nen,

COO, Near Real Oy

mari.karkkainen@near-real.com

Mah­ba Mohamed

CEO, Med­ical Cen­ter Medipulssi

mahba.mohamed@medipulssi.fi

Source: Near Real